The Next New Thing

New Media has definitely changed our lives drastically over the years. In the past, physical paper copies of personal, government, medical or business were how we kept track of everything. Corporations, Hospitals, Entrepreneurs, Government agencies had enormous records departments were they stored there important data. This set up used up a lot of precious real estate plus staffing that was needed to maintain and manage the documents. There were definitely a lot of costs involved when you factor that all in. In this new age of technology, most of these physical can now be pulled up digitally  if it was scanned or if a data entry process was used in the first place. By using word searches or another type of search feature, you can pull up many items in seconds as opposed to the long amount of time it would most likely take manually. There are some places that are more organized than others but having everything digital makes it much easier and quicker to mine data. This allows people to multitask better. It helps people become more efficient and productive.

 

In the same vein of multitasking, an example of New Media that can do some wonders is having a “smart” virtual assistant. It can be an online secretary that will use artificial intelligence to help make decisions (financial, operational, and social). The “new media” would be a website that you could enter all of your personal, financial and business related data. This website will have all of your passwords and information so that it can help make decisions that would have been handled by an actual secretary. Let’s say there was a fire on a train and you were going to miss a meeting because of it, the virtual secretary can look for the next available train or flight and book it for you. It can even reach out to your client and let them know that the meeting has been rescheduled or announce your issues on your social media page. There will be options where you can enter your preferences, payment info, lifestyle choices, and whatever personal information is needed to help the program make decisions for you in crunch time. You would be able to enter data via text or voice and the program can make the best decisions for you. This program will basically help you manage your life and business. This would allow you to use staff for other things or help you reduce costs by minimizing headcount. This would be a wonderful program but I don’t think artificial intelligence is that far yet. Soon…

WIKI So Far...

My research for the Wiki will revolve around how New Media is used in the Clothing and Entertainment industries. I will focus on how Marketing and Advertising is handled in this new era of Technology. Another that I will look to add to the Wiki page is how Apps can be utilized to help in those two industries. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) is used extensively in these fields as well. I have been to a number of different entertainment and clothing/sneaker events that have utilized all types of new media to promote their products/businesses.

 

On top of the Marketing/Advertising piece, I have also done research on how new media is used to manage these businesses. Most businesses used traditional software like Microsoft Office, Accounting/Inventory Management software that can be very costly. With the advent of Apps, there are now inexpensive, even free, simple to use versions that can help you manage the basics of your business. You can pay a little more for the Apps and get a better version to handle more complex tasks. I will show how New Media has ushered in simple to use technologies that once required years of training to achieve.

 

I will provide a contents page as well as references for my research.

Privacy

A lot of what new media does is try to find out as much as they can of your personal information to they could make a profit through selling that information to advertisers. That is primarily how companies like Facebook make their money. Privacy and confidentiality is hard to police in this new world or media. How can you trust all of those confidentiality statements you see in most of these websites? They will most likely not sell them off to third parties but what is stopping them from monitoring your traffic patterns on their websites and selling you stuff that meets those patterns. Also, people need to be careful with how much information they are putting out on these social network websites. If you have your phone number, work information, school you are attending, etc., you are basically violating your own privacy because you are putting it our for the world to see. The confidentiality you may have looked for will be gone at that point. It is hard to keep your information safe. On the news recently, there were a number of famous people (even Michelle Obama) who had their finances, S.S. numbers and all types of personal information splattered on their website. This was insane but it seems like it can happen at any point if computers are the primary source of storing this information. This is the wave of the future and it gives us global access. Going back to paper files for everything will most likely never be an option for us again.

You also have to understand that when you post too much information online, you are opening it up for everyone to see. If you are looking for a job, employers/managers like myself will Google your name to see if there is anything crazy out there linked to you or try to see what your real character is by looking at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. -  pictures, comments, statuses, etc. This can come back to bite you in the long run and I will say from experience, I have passed on candidates from what I have seen online. What they say at an interview will sometimes not match up with what I find online and this can cause me to question one’s credibility. Be careful what image you display to the world. It can end things for you before they even start…

Advice

Baruch has done a decent job of utilizing New Media to keep up with the times. A lot of their material is available online. The library has an extensive online catalog of books, articles, journals, etc. This allows students the ability to access resources from anywhere in the world. This gives students more options and accessibility options. You can get most of what you need from anywhere that has Internet access. Professors can also do the same. There are also other new media technologies like Blackboard, Blogs, online registration, tuition payments, etc…It seems like Baruch also has social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, etc…

Considering all of this, I still think they could do more. The first I would do is most likely do, is add more online courses. I don’t think Baruch has enough classes available online. I would make it a larger part of the course offerings at Baruch. The school has a good reputation and I think this would boost up the enrollment at the school.

I enjoyed one of the previous articles we read in the semester where it utilized Twitter in class somewhat similar to this class. Using Social Media in real time would be something the professors could use to their advantage. You find professors getting distracted in class because they are trying to keep their students off of their electronic gadgets. If the professors would find a way to incorporate social media into the lesson, I think there would be some unique ways in which to keep everyone’s attention and applying it immediately into the real world. Things like Online polls, Q&A sessions, inbox conversations, etc…, would definitely keep the things interesting for the new generation. This can also open up other options like blogs and wikis for classroom information or discussions. It would be amazing if some proprietary software could be created (like Facebook) so that communication could happen internally between students, professors, staff, student clubs, etc. This can be used for promoting events, classroom assignments, important messages, etc. These would be a few of my suggestions. Hopefully they will come to life someday. 

Creativity and New Media

I went ahead and created a Avatar in Life. I did not create it to my likeness but maybe what I would like to like a few years. There are so many tools and details at your disposal in Second Life and I can see why people would immerse themselves into this world for hours and hours.

I toured some of the areas and visited a place that was based on creativity. It was interesting because it offered you the options or receiving emails or correspondence from the company. This is a great way to market your company and now I can see what the stories about Second Life were referring to when it talked about doing business virtually. Great idea!

I also visited the Panorama place that you see in the picture above.

 

 

This is what I came across. It was a pretty cool and visually appealing place in Second Life. I can tell this world is most likely never ending. I saw a number of people have a chat with each other and I was invited to a party. There was so much to do in this environment and I enjoyed myself. I do not want to get sucked into this world because I know I will spend way too much time playing this simulation game. In my opinion, this will continue to enjoy success moving forward. Great Job!

Creativity

New media has opened up a myriad of opportunities for the amateur computer or technology gadget user to look like a professional that has studied it for years. The user friendly software packages have put a number of tools in the hands of the common person which has piqued the interest of the masses. This has done wonders for creativity because people are able to create things that were only possible for people who have worked with computers for a long time or who have degrees in some type of technology hardware/software program. I can work my way around most business programs but when it comes to programs like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc., I don’t have the experience necessary to create anything impressive. I would be the first to say that I am not good at drawing or creating anything on a computer but I do have good ideas. With things like photo apps on an iPhone, I am able to do things with pictures/designs that I never thought possible. There are also computer programs that make it so user friendly that I can just use templates already pre-populated in certain programs that allow me to do something with the ideas in my head.

The ideas don’t always have to come from these large corporations or super-smart program/web developer with their fancy code language and difficult terminologies I have to Google every time I hear one. Innovation can come from the common person and New Media companies pick up on that. In the article “Twitter Serves Up Ideas From It's Followers”, Eric von Hippel (head of innovation and entrepreneurship group at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T.) realized that the Twitter may have some ideas that the company could benefit from so he allowed them to help create new uses for the technology and it helped them become even more successful. This is smart because and idea can fall right into their lap and they didn’t have to spend millions of dollars in research and development. It is much cheaper going this route and allows them more time to focus on other things that can help them become even more successful. Look at mashups, this is a tough one for large companies because they have to be careful that the mashup doesn’t negatively affect their company if it looks like they are condoning something that may be improper but it could also give them a larger following that they could have never tapped into on their own. Nickelodeon allows their audience to create humorous videos using their characters but Disney would most likely consider this stealing. Again, these companies have to figure out what is considered acceptable use of their trademarked/copyrighted material. There is so much creativity that goes into these things and so much content out there, companies have to pick and choose which battles to fight. If they were to sue everyone, they would probably lose so much money on lawyer fees.

Creativity is tricky. Some could say that using someone else’s creation and putting a spin on it is not really creative but that can be debated. Original ideas are usually respected more than something like this but not everyone can do that. It can become expensive if you need specialized software/hardware or years of schooling. I feel that they are both creative but there definitely has to be a line that should not be crossed. In my opinion, New Media has done wonders in the way of helping foster creativity and the sky is the limit for even the common person with little design experience. Welcome to the future of technology.

Sources used:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html

 

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds have been around for quite some time. Some sources point back to as far as 15-18 years depending on what was considered a virtual world. As a kid I watched a few movies that hinted at the future being controlled by computers and we would soon live in virtual worlds. It was always difficult to see that happening because we were so dependent on the real world, we could not forsee how that would even work. Smart phones were not around and we depended on pay phones or land lines to communicate with one another or mailed a letter if you had to send a note with a picture. We did not have smart phones or networked computers in those times so the thought of virtual worlds did not cross many people’s minds. Gamers may have thought of virtual worlds more than the common person because the games were a form of fantasy that they would engage their time and senses.

 

Now comes a future, with all of this new technology and virtual world possibilities that we could never have dreamed of as a kid. The 3D technology has become so advanced that some people can become completely immersed in a virtual world. Many people spend tremendous amounts of hours in these worlds. It becomes such an obsession for some that it takes away from family time and social time with real world friends. There are many uses for this technology. The Second Life video hit real close to home. As someone living with MS, I can relate to this video. My situation is not as dire but I definitely have limitations that prevent me from doing certain things that I enjoyed in my younger years. I can not do as many physical activities as I once did as a teenager and I have a number of issues like fatigue and memory loss, to name a couple. I have to be very careful but in this virtual world your imagination can run wild. It allows you to be free to create what ever your imagination comes up with. This is the wonderful part of this. We have to be careful though. This can also cause you to depend on this virtual reality so much that you may have problems being social in the real world. In my opinion, human interaction is so important in someone’s life. A computer can not replace that.

 

One of the coolest articles I read was called I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life. I used to live in the Lower East Side and I still go there a lot because my mom and many of my friends are still in the area. It is so surreal to see this recreated in a virtual world. It helps you appreciate and relive some of your old memories by visiting places you can’t physically get to at the moment. The nostalgia of it would do wonders for people because childhood memories usually live strong in our minds. We all have said things like “I remember going to a certain place when we were younger and we wish we could do it again”. This type of virtual world can make some of that happen for you. This definitely can help feed some of your appetite but it can’t replace the real world experience. For some people it may actually have the opposite effect. It can make them miss the real world experience even more.

 

The article titled In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy All Over Again, I found fascinating in that someone’s creativity was fostered by there want to make the hotel stay the way it was down to the crime scene in room 100. It was funny to hear that the “mailboxes” were missed and they made sure that it was a focal point of the recreation. The ability to make anything as it once was or change it to how you would have liked it to look can even create architectural jobs for certain people. If you created something that a builder may fancy, that virtual project may have a chance to become reality. There are a number of skills that can be utilized in the real world and you wouldn’t even know it initially. This type of creativity breeds new ideas that can be used by big businesses because they are always looking for ways to stay ahead of the competition.

The future will bring about new ways to use these virtual worlds. The creativity that will spawn from here will allow us to do anything without leaving your home. Businesses will most likely create ways to sell there products in these worlds. In the very near future, (if it hasn’t happened already) you will be able to recreate yourself down to your actual weight and size in these virtual worlds. This may allow you to try on clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc… just like you would in real life and make purchases that way. You may test drive cars or go house hunting with a real estate agent, all in a virtual environment. The possibilities are endless. There will be millions of people out there that would flock to this. This makes it easier to sell to anyone, anywhere in the world. It is amazing to see how far we have come with technology.

Sources cited:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV52WRXm1Cg

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1363921738-Z4K9JcOH73hXnmJPa7T0pg

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/nyregion/thecity/03virt.html